How to Make Book Covers When You’re Broke

I have been struggling with the promotional side of my writing, not because I’m not trying but because I just don’t have the funds to pay for what I need to get really promoted. For instance, book covers. It is said that on Wattpad if you don’t have a cover on your story then no one will even look at them, but I can’t afford to have someone make them for me. Suddenly I stumbled across a blog that saved my bacon.

How to Make Your Own Free Book Cover in MS Word

This step by step guide showed the cheap and easy way to create a book cover. IT WAS AWESOME!

But then there was a major issue. You can save it as a PDF but you CAN”T save it as a JPEG or GIF file. You need it to be in a JPEG or GIF format in order to put it on the site. OH NOOOO!

I fiddled around for a while opening it in several different programs but still couldn’t get it to work. So I did it the old fashion way and printed it out then scanned it back in. It worked. But…really? Is this what I am going to have to do every time?

NOOOOO!

I found the best solution ever! There is a website called Pdf2Jpg.net This site allows you to upload a PDF (Your book cover) and convert it to a JPEG so you can upload it to the site. YIPPY! YAY!

This is an example of what I made. It is for my short story Bump in the Road

Problems solved. Now just need to write some more and find the right pictures.

Seriously, how hard can dinner be?

I know that most of you are thinking right now…what she can’t cook? Of course I can cook! I kick ass cooking or baking, just ask any of my daughters friends. No, I’m complaining about menu planning.

I have in my house, a vegetarian, a carnivore, a very picky autistic kid, and me who will take what she can get. Do you have any idea how hard it is to plan meals on a tight budget when no one will eat the same things! I usually end up making way more food than I need to because I’m trying to make sure that everyone is getting the nutritional intake that they need for their respective lifestyles. My husband sticks to meaty kind of meals because his job is very demanding physically and he needs it. My daughter is a teenager that is active in sports and a vegetarian…hello you need more calories than lettuce gives!! Then there is my son who is just a non stop cracker and milk fiend.How do I make sure they stay healthy?

I grew up with meat, potatoes, vegetable and if you were still hungry there was bread and jelly. Now I’m cooking vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Italian, etc, etc,,, You name it I’m trying to cook it. I love the different types of food but liking doesn’t make it all fit. Unfortunately some diets cancel out others. Like a lot of the vegetarian meat substitutes are made from gluten. Well that doesn’t work with a gluten free diet. Then there is the Indian food which is very vegetarian and yummy but it is very spicy and that is not good for me. My body doesn’t really like spicy. I like the taste just not the effect.

I’m getting to the point where I feel like a restaurant every night. And the cost! Holy Crap-a-moley some of this stuff is insanely expensive. I live in rural Montana! This is not the land of variety shopping especially for the specialized diets!

I don’t even want to cook any more. I’m losing my enthusiasm for new recipes and experimenting. Can someone just magically whack my family with a dinner wand and everyone will eat what I make?!?!?! PLEASE!